The three greatest game fish are the Atlantic salmon, tarpon and bonefish; Ted Williams says so.
If his name rings a bell it is because of his fame as an American baseball player. I have caught a few salmon and hooked and broken a tarpon in the Belize River but never fished for bonefish when I was there.
There are three more fish. First Ronnie Fish, one of Lord Emsworth’s nephews, who was taught how to fish by Beach on the lake at Blandings. Then there’s Sexy Fish a newish restaurant on Berkeley Square. I have walked past it and have a strong sentiment that the clientele would spoil a visit even if I was up for the high prices. If you fancy a Japanese Wagyu 150 gram fillet steak it costs £85 plus £2 cover charge and 12.5% service charge. That will be £98, sir, bling, bling. Yes bling is the dominant motif in the decor of this palace of vulgarity. Donald Trump is certain to drop in.
And there’s Nice Fish with Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins at the Harold Pinter Theatre. It is a very unusual piece of theatre. Most of the play is a dialogue between Rylance and Jenkins as they sit on a frozen lake fishing through holes in the ice. The dialogue is composed of extracts from Louis Jenkins’s prose poems. Jenkins plays the straight guy to Rylance’s tortured character, a bundle of neurotic insecurity. It is becoming a cult classic with many of the audience making return visits. Did I enjoy it? Sorry, no, I just didn’t really get it. I could only see the emperor prancing around in the buff.
CB,
Your are on top form as usual. Very clever to mirror the conclusion of Rylance/Jenkins as they are transformed into an elderly couple leaving the play complaining that “I didn’t understand it. There was no plot”.
Similar theme to Tartar Steppes, portraying two seemingly wasted lives but with great humour and insight contrasting the initial appearances of the gloom of the Rylance character with the contentment of the Jenkins character interspersed with some great coup de theatre and wholly unexpected twists and turns. My only criticism is that the fishing was disappointing!